Chelsie Leigh LaCoursiere and Jeremy Butters, De Soto, announce the birth of their daughter, Arianna Leigh Butters, born Nov. 27, 2006, at Shawnee Mission Medical Center, Merriam. She weighed 7 pounds, 12 1/4 ounces.

Grandparents are Charlie and Dee Hood, Eudora, Mike LaCoursiere, De Soto, and LouAnn Butters, Shawnee.

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Several Lawrence area students were initiated into Kansas University’s chapter of Phi Kappa Phi honor society recently. Honorees are listed by hometown:

– Baldwin City: Sonja Emily Combest

– Lawrence: Karen M. Bentley, Rachael A. Costello, Amy Elizabeth Couzens, George L. Couzens, Heidi Ann Kuchinski Fedak, Thomas Wayne Fulbright, Brian Thomas Garland, Kevin Duncan Grant, Erik Austin Heironimus, Dayna Roxanne Jones, John Michael Kuhn, Zachary A. Lerner, Nathan Andrew Mack Jr., Alan P. Martinez, Amber Sue Messersmith, Katherine M. Nielsen, Rebecca Mergen Pennington, Mallory Glynnis Richardson, Cindy Sue Scott, Jamie A. Shaw, Andrew C. Struble II, Barbara Dianne Torgerson and Elizabeth Ann Wagner

– Ottawa: Patricia Lee Sylvester

– Winchester: Judee S. Herring

At KU, only the top 10 percent of seniors, top 7.5 percent of second-semester juniors with more than 72 credit hours and top 10 percent of graduate students are asked to join.

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Cordley School’s McCarthy Fitch and Bishop Seabury’s Nathan Wilhelm claimed fourth-place medals in the K-3 and K-8 divisions, respectively, at the Allen-Villages Chess Tournament on Dec. 2 at Penn Valley Community College in Kansas City, Mo.

Other Lawrence medal winners were: in K-12, Roy Wedge, Central Junior High, sixth, and Jason Chang, Southwest Junior High, seventh; in K-6, Jacob Burdett, Cordley, eighth. Central’s Jacob Wilson and Cordley’s George Wedge also competed in the tournament.

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Several Lawrence-area residents will receive degrees from Washburn University’s School of Nursing. They include Dawn Yvette Bowlin-Prager, Rachel Severance Buerman, Tricia Dittmer, Katie Parker, Christina Rusk, Kimberly Steffen, Emily Sturgeon, Todd Walburn and Jacki Williams.

Commencement will be at 6:30 p.m. Friday in Lee Arena, Petro Allied Health Center.

The graduates will be honored during a ceremony at 10 a.m. Dec. 16 in White Concert Hall on the Washburn campus.

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Kassandra Williams, Perry, will be a student director at Washburn University’s annual vespers, set for 4 p.m. Sunday at White Concert Hall, Garvey Fine Arts Center. The event is free and open to the public. Williams is a junior majoring in music education with a vocal concentration.

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Baker University School of Nursing students and an alumna were recently inducted into the Eta Kappa Chapter at Large of the nursing honor society Sigma Theta Tau International.

The inductees included Larissa Johnson, Brooke Seymour and Emily Smiley, all of Lawrence, and Brandy Melton, Tecumseh.

Sue Iverson, a 2005 School of Nursing graduate from Lawrence and staff nurse at Stormont-Vail HealthCare, was inducted as a community member.

Smiley will receive a scholarship from the chapter at Baker’s School of Nursing pinning ceremony Friday.

Baker’s School of Nursing Stormont-Vail HealthCare campus is in Topeka.